Well, if you’d asked me how the goal that would keep us in the Championship would come about, a goal from a centreback from a set piece would probably have been my second last choice behind a penalty (more on that later!).
I must point out that the sentence above needs qualification in two respects. First, any City fan who lived through Preston 6 Cardiff 0 and the great implosion of 08/09 should know better than to start counting chickens. We’re not mathematically safe yet – two heavy defeats by Huddersfield and Burnley combined with big wins for Reading over Wigan and Huddersfield could still see us relegated, Secondly, the goal from the centreback was not your traditional Cardiff set piece header, this, like the one at Watford last week, was a shot smashed home at the far post as the ball came to the scorer off a defender.
That said, City have to feel they’re safe now, but the motivation I’d have if I was in their camp would be to get one more point to ensure that we do not get the charge that we only stayed up because of other teams having points deducted directed at us – ensuring we finish above Huddersfield would be nice as well seeing how so many thought they were bound to finish above us after they appointed Neil Warnock – the long suffering home fans are also way overdue a worthwhile performance from the team..
To win tonight at Rotherham was especially satisfying given the abandonment of the game a few weeks back when we were 1-0 up in a game we had totally controlled. I had my doubts about this rearranged game because Rotherham’s record this season confirms that they are not as bad a team as they looked in their 1-0 loss at Cardiff City Stadium and in the half of football played before the hit Rotherham have won at promoted Sheffield United this season and drawn at Middlesbrough besides thrashing Blackburn 4-0.
In the event, Rotherham were better than they’d been in their two previous encounters with us against us and may have felt they deserved to be ahead at the break, but, over the ninety minutes I thought we were the team who were able to show a bit more quality in an atmosphere and occasion that you wouldn’t expect fantastic football in and, very unusually for us this season, we carried more of a goal threat.
Whether this was enough to merit our 2-1 win is arguable – we certainly didn’t deserve to lose, but maybe a draw would have been the fairest outcome? In saying that, you have to praise the team for taking us to the very brink of safety by winning away games at Blackpool and Rotherham which were being flagged up weeks in advance as the sort of matches where our Championship future would be decided – thrown in the win at Watford eight days ago as well and virtual safety has been achieved on other team’s grounds, not in our own stadium where, for a third successive season, we’ve been largely feeble.
Sabri Lamouchi was forced into a change in goal as Jak Alnwick came in for Ryan Allsop who it seems may just make the season finale at Burnley after going off injured against Stoke and the only other change from the weekend saw Jaden Philogene selected in place of Andy Rinomhota.
It took Rotherham less than two minutes to come closer to scoring than they had done throughout their two previous encounters with City as Jordan Hugill headed against the crossbar (this was the only occasion I can remember where he was jumping against our smallest central defender Perry Ng) and it was looking like another dozy start by us as the striker we had on loan last season raced clear shortly afterwards only to go down dramatically on the edge of the penalty area under challenge by Cedric Kipre. At the first viewing it looked a likely red card, but the replay of the incident showed that Hugill had lost his balance and went down under his own steam so to speak with Kipre not much more than an onlooker in the episode.
For a few minutes after that, there were signs that City were finding their feet – Mahlon Romeo (an effective right wing back going forward tonight) forced home keeper Viktor Johansson into his first save of the night with a low effort from the corner of the penalty area.
It still came as a shock though to see us take the lead on eleven minutes with another early goal on the ground where Philogene had scored inside five minutes a few weeks earlier. This time Philogene played a minor part in the goal as, with help from Romeo, the ball was laid back to Ng who flighted one of those excellent crosses he seems more capable of supplying as a right sided central defender than a wing back. This latest one found Kion Etete who stooped to guide a good header beyond Viktor Johansson from eight yards out for a second goal in three games for the young striker who had only managed one in City’s first forty one.
Just for a while, City suggested it could be as comfortable for them as it was in the abandoned game, but referee Oliver Langford’s eccentric decision making soon made it clear that it wouldn’t be because his failure to even penalise what was a rugby tackle on Philogene and two clear fouls on Etete (my City man of the match despite Sky, understandably, awarding the prize to Cedric Kipre) showed Rotherham a way back into things as they upped the physicality and started to win far too many fifty fifties.
The home side were also tending to get the first touch on most set pieces into our box and, increasingly, City we’re forced back. Quite how they did not concede an equaliser when a corner flew beyond Alnwick to the far post where two red shirted players waited to get the decisive touch I’m not sure, but Romeo was able to somehow clear the danger.
Rotherham’s strong spell suggested an equaliser was on the way as City struggled to get out from the oppressive pressure they were under and when Joe Ralls was left up against two home players following a throw in, Wes Harding’s fine cross was nodded in on the far post by Chiedozie Ogbene for a goal similar to Etete’s. However, City were left questioning why a free kick had not been awarded for a foul on Kipre who went down under challenge from home skipper Richard Wood and the replays of the goal showed that there was what looked like a push on our defender as the cross came in.
Apart from a crisply struck Sory Kaba shot which Johansson was able to block, City were now offering little in attack and it looked like a question of making it through the eight minutes until half time intact against a home team that were now outbattling us.
However, from nowhere, City we’re awarded a penalty as Philogene was grabbed just outside the penalty area by ConorCoventry, but as there was still a foul being committed as the two players moved into the penalty area, it seemed that, unusually, Mr Langford had made a correct decision.
As soon as you see a ref point to the spot with your team attacking there is always that initial celebration because it should mean a goal for them, but, given City’s lamentable one from five record from the spot in league matches this season, there is now almost a sense of resignation that it is going to be missed or, to be more accurate, saved by the keeper.
This time it was different though, Kaba’s penalty was not saved, instead it smacked against the crossbar and flew over – having seen his low penalty saved on Saturday, Kaba went for lifting the ball this time and it’s now five from six missed now which, apparently is almost twice as many as the next worst team from the spot in the EFL
One last comment on this latest City miss, the way JKaba lined up to take it, it had to go the keeper’s left and so it did.
A Rotherham win looked more likely to me than a City one at half time and it felt more that way when it was confirmed that Jack Simpson was replacing Callum O’Dowda as left wing back – to be fair to Simpson, after being beaten by Ogbene in their first duel, he performed pretty well, just like he has done on all of the recent occasions he’s been called into action
Given that a draw wouldn’t have been a bad result for either side, there was some speculation beforehand that we might see a cagey affair with a suspicion that there’d been some sort of agreement between the teams to do each other a favour, but nothing could have been further from the truth in a very lively first period.
As for the second half, I’m not going to accuse anyone of a carve up (the result is all the proof you need to show that there wasn’t one), but I think it would be fair to say that both teams played as if they were more influenced by the consequences of defeat and so there was not a great deal from either to suggest the game’s third goal was coming anytime soon.
Certainly, I spent much of the first half thinking Rotherham could well score, but not much of the second period feeling the same way. By the same token, I couldn’t see another City goal coming – or at least I couldn’t until the last ten minutes or so when we started to earn ourselves some free kicks and corners for ourselves.
Sky had flashed up a stat showing that City had only scored once from the two hundred plus corners they’d been awarded this season (Kipre headed one in against Watford at home) so there was never any great hope of much happening from that avenue, but on eighty seven minutes, we earned free kick on our left some forty yards from foal which eventually lead to the winning goal. What followed was a scramble which went on for ten to fifteen seconds with headers from Connor Wickham (on in place of Kaba) and Mark McGuinness playing a part the goal. Wickam’s contribution ensured that suddenly, the ball was at Etete’s feet ten yards from goal. It probably should have been a second goal for the striker, but his low shot was too close to Johansson who got down to save well. Again, the ball bobbed about for a few seconds before McGuiness headed on and a rebound off a defender sent the ball to Kipre who smacked a fierce volley into the net via the under side of the crossbar from the same sort of area he’d scored from against Watford last week..
This was the cue for wild celebrations from the team with the nine hundred City fans behind the goal and, although there were seven extra minutes signalled, the truth was they went by with hardly a threat to our goal as City, no doubt full of adrenaline, we’re able to stay calm enough to ensure there were no late giveaways.
With so many fixtures to come between sides in trouble where someone has to drop points, it’s hard to see City being dragged back into the middle of the relegation battle now and, with Reading entertaining Wigan on Saturday, it’s guaranteed that at least one team in trouble will have dropped points by the time we entertain Huddersfield on Sunday.